Nine countries engaged in talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact began a five-day meeting Monday in Vietnam, aiming to build consensus for a draft deal, with particular emphasis on the disputed issues of labor and environment. Representatives of the nine nations, including the United States, had initially aimed to conclude negotiations before the summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu in November. Due to a lack of progress in the talks, however, they now only seek to come to a broad agreement by the date.

SEOUL — The European Union sees its sweeping free trade agreement with South Korea as a model for planned pacts elsewhere in Asia, the EU’s chief negotiator on the deal said Monday. The FTA, which comes into force on July 1, is the most important so far negotiated by the European bloc, Ignacio Garcia Bercero told a seminar. It was also the first that the world’s largest economic bloc had negotiated in Asia, "the most dynamic region of the world economy".

Vale Coal Colombia has been violating the Labor Action Plan between the United States and Colombia, a requisite of the pending free trade agreement, through threats and reprisals against unionists in the northern department of Cesar, according to U.S. trade union United Steelworkers (USW). In a letter to Vale Coal Colombia President Zenaldo Olivera, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several top U.S. officials, USW’s International President Leo W. Gerard lambasted recent retaliations against trade unionists at Vale’s El Hatillo coal mine in Cesar department.

WASHINGTON—In an economy fighting for every job it can find, you would think the possibility of thousands of new ones would find universal support. Not when it comes to global trade. It’s tough to get excited about trade with Panama. After all, the biggest American export to Panama is diesel. It’s about the same for Colombia. Most Made in America products there are petroleum and chemicals. South Korea, meantime, spends a couple billion dollars each month buying US made semiconductors, heavy machinery and corn.

VNEconomyNews.com - Pepper exports were likely to double last year's figure to reach US$766 million this year, forecast the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The prediction was made because the world currently has a limited supply of pepper. The International Pepper Community (IPC) previously forecasted that this year's global pepper production would fall by 6,500 tonnes to 310,000 tonnes. Due to increasing demand, the world market would likely witness a shortage of 45,000 tonnes of pepper this year, IPC said.

New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) Cotton exporters, who fail to ship the quantity allocated to them within the stipulated period, will be debarred from future allocations, according to tough norms of the commerce ministry. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said it would also initiate penal action against the defaulting exporters. Cotton exports are being restricted through a quota in the wake of shortages. While initially, the quota allocation was 55 lakh bales (170 kg each), the same has been increased to 65 lakh bales.

Indonesia and the European Union (EU) have agreed to commence talks on an “ambitious” free trade agreement (FTA), as both parties seek to boost two-way trade and EU investments in Indonesia.The FTA is part of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which the Indonesia-EU Vision Group has recommended for the Indonesian and EU governments to soon start negotiations on.

DUBAI — Indian Business Leaders Forum, or IBLF, said it will make an all-out effort to see that a Free Trade Agreement between the UAE and India becomes a reality in the coming months.

The government is seeking to reduce the potential impact of a South Korea-EU free-trade agreement (FTA) on local industries by boosting product differentiation and market expansion, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang said yesterday. In addition, Shih said his ministry had set up a task force with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to lobby European countries to sign a Taiwan-EU FTA.

QUITO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The governments of Ecuador and Turkey are expected to sign a new landmark trade agreement before the end of 2011, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Based on the positive advance in bilateral talks between Ecuador and Turkey, both countries are confident that the details of the agreement will be negotiated without major complications, the ministry said in a statement.